Show notes
Jesse McLaren is a Jimmy Kimmel writer.Show NotesJesse McLaren on Twitter - https://twitter.com/McJesseJesse McLaren on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/larenmcjesse/Free Writing Webinar - https://michaeljamin.com/op/webinar-registration/Michael's Online Screenwriting Course - https://michaeljamin.com/courseFree Screenwriting Lesson - https://michaeljamin.com/freeJoin My Watchlist - https://michaeljamin.com/watchlistAuto-Generated TranscriptJesse McLaren:If something just pops into your head on a Saturday of a story that, you know, you'll be talking about Monday, right? Like, I I did it. I got, I got something I know is like, gonna be really funny to pitch on Monday, right? So it's actually a little bit of a relief. It's not like, oh, I can't stop thinking about work. It's like, oh, and now I don't have to stress Sunday night or whatever. It's like, I know that, well, I'm gonna go into Monday with something I think is, is strong.Michael Jamin:Hey everyone, it's Michael Jamin. Welcome back to another episode of Screenwriters. Need to Hear This. I got a very interesting guest today because he's gonna tell us all about something I know very little about, but I always aspired to do when I was younger. This, this, my next guest, Jesse McLaren, is a writer on Jimmy Kimmel. And again, I like, yeah man, I, I just wanna know all about that. Cause as a child, I was like, man, I, that, that would've been the, the pinnacle. But I went another way. I went into sitcom writing. But, but, but, but with how we met, we were, I was walking the strike line outside of Disney and then Jesse goes, Hey man, I know you. And he pulls me over cuz he follows, I guess he follows me on TikTok or Instagram. And I was like, Hey, what do you doing? And he's like, I'm on Kimmel. So, welcome to this show. Thank you Jesse, for being here.Jesse McLaren:Thank you for having me.Michael Jamin:Yeah. I wanna know all about, and I asked you, I asked him you know, you, I guess I'll talk to you like how you broke in and you're like, Twitter. So tell me what that, how that all came about?Jesse McLaren:Yeah. I'm you know, like I, I've always wanted to work in late night. That's always been my end goal. And, you know, as aMichael Jamin:Kid, sawJesse McLaren:ConanMichael Jamin:AsJesse McLaren:A child. Yeah. Yeah. I remember like cutting school to see Conan. I, I grew up in Long Island andMichael Jamin:So you go into the city to see a show.Jesse McLaren:Yeah. I just remember like watching in between, you know, the the segments, just watching the people behind the scenes going like, how do I end up working here when I was like, you know, 16 maybe.Michael Jamin:Wow.Jesse McLaren:And then I always watch work late night. Yeah.Michael Jamin:And then what did you think about, like, usually you, you write a packet and you submit, right? Is that, but you didn't do that,Jesse McLaren:That's usually what you do. Yeah. I mean, I for Kimel they found me on Twitter. So, you know, after I, I started tweeting jokes and making videos on Twitter as much as I could for a period of time. I used to work at you know, for a while I worked at different TV shows. So I, I'm one of the, I think many people late night who worked production jobs first. Right. I used to work at the field, field departments and that kind of thing.Michael Jamin:Yeah. I noticed it. So you worked like, on, on Colbert, you did a bunch of different showsJesse McLaren:Right. Yeah. I worked on a lot of daytime TV shows, Uhhuh <affirmative>, kind of, it's actually kind of a similar structure, you know as far as how the show runs, but it's obviously very different content. Right. Michael Jamin:But why didn't you ever start writing packets and submitting, or, I don't even know how that works. Why, why didn't you do that?Jesse McLaren:Well, I did. So when I was, you know, I, I, my first, I, you know, landed a job that was my dream, which I worked at the Colbert Poor. Right. doing production, doing you know, the field department when he would travel to DC and that kind of thing. And interview congressman. Right. A series called Better Know A District. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And whenever a writer job opened up there, anyone who was in the, you know, a PA or an ap, which I was, or anything like that, they would submit a packet. And you know, then starting, like, you get to know the writers and you start hearing rumors like, oh, you know, they're starting a new show called Larry Wilmore. Right. And, you know, our whatever. And you start submitting packets to whatever you can as someone who's not represented, but someone who kind of has,Michael Jamin:So how do you submit even if you don't have an agent?Jesse McLaren:Well back at that point, it was like, if you, you know, like you have a friend of a friend who's like submitting and they'll say, this is the email we're told to send it to. By this time it kind of becomes this like, network of just like, you know, so like, if you find out about a packet, you might tell some of your other friends, there'sMichael Jamin:A packet going on. So. Okay. Good. So how did you make, how did you have friends that knew all this?Jesse McLaren:I think that was from working at Colbert, you know, I was, I interned there, I applied as in when I was in college, I applied to be an intern at Everywhere, but I ended up at MTV Networks. Right. And you know, it was like my second to last semester I was interning at Nickelodeon mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and like in a tape room, just like, just filing tapes. And I, and in the orientation I heard someone in the elevator go, oh, you know, I'm gonna be at the Daily Show. And that's went wait, that, that was a possibility, you know? Yeah. and in New York at that time, yeah,Michael Jamin:Go ahead. No, tell, keep going. This's just fascinating to me. Go ahead.Jesse McLaren:This the, the Daily Show and the Colbert Report were like the two shows under MTV that were actually a show that shot and you would actually be part of a production, you know? Yeah. so I applied to be at the Colbert Report. I think it helped that I already had an internship with NT Networks and I interned there eventually, you know, made connections there, which sometimes throughout the next few years, like if they needed a PA for the week, I would come by and that kind of thing.Michael Jamin:See, this is what I'm always telling people. I say, get as close as you can physically to the job you want. And that's what you did is as an intern or pa whatever it is, you're just getting close. Just so you could learn, be around it, hear from other people, and just make those contacts that way. Right. And then, yeah.Jesse McLaren:Yeah.Michael Jamin:And then when you're putting together packets, I mean, each show they kind of do, they kind of want different stuff? I mean, they might, they must say they do, they must say no, Conan's voice is this and, you know, were you studying the Yeah,Jesse McLaren:I mean, every packet's way different. I mean, the, at the time the Colbert packet I remember was like pretty intense. It was like, you had, you had that segment, the word Uhhuh <affirmative>, I dunno if you're familiar with the show, but that one. But it was pretty, it was, you know, a to camera on one subject and it would have all these editorial like voices through text, just kind of like shining in Okay. As jokes. But also, and it was kind of complicated, especially if you've never written for, you know, like it's one thing to write a page of monologue jokes, but it's another like, write an entire one of these segments that has to like, you know, be about a topic that needs attention and then it's written in a clever way and, you know, so, butMichael Jamin:So you're basically coming up, were you coming with any original stuff or just like, okay, here's my version of, you know, of that the word or you, or you coming with any new bits for him to do, you know what I'm saying? Any like, you know,Jesse McLaren:Yeah. Any packet I've ever seen has always been different. Some, so that show specifically, I think they really were like, like focused on what they want. Right. For the packets. Like one of these segments we do one of these segments, we do, maybe it, you know, I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was pretty much like especially cuz that that was show wasn't like monologue jokes. It was a character who had a very specific point of, you know didn't realize he was saying funny things like that kinda thing.Michael Jamin:Right. And so you turn you hand in these packets. It's not like they have a hiring season, they justJesse McLaren:No. IfMichael Jamin:You get lucky, if they, if they were hiring today, great. If not, maybe they keep you on file. Is that how it works?Jesse McLaren:I guess. I mean, I've never gotten hired from a packet, so it's like, I don't, you dunno. I think every show is completely different and I think every you know, I'm not entirely sure how we do it at Kimmel, but I, and I know they found me through, through Twitter. I know other people have written packets for them, but I, and so onMichael Jamin:Twitter, this is amazing. So you're just going out. What were you doing at the time? You've been on Twitter for how, for how long? How many years?Jesse McLaren:Like a while <laugh>, I mean, I worked at like, so let's see, probably like eight years. I've been like actively really using it aMichael Jamin:Lot. And so every morning you, how would, like, before you get hired by Kimmel, what's your, what's your process for writing? You just come up, you sit down on the table, you read the newspaper and you try to bang out 10 jokes or what do you do?Jesse McLaren:No, I think it's more quality over quantity for that kind of thing too. Cuz you just wanna, I think the thing with Twitter is it's like, you know, but when the news story happens, this wave and you kind of want to get the funniest joke in there as early as possible.Michael Jamin:But are you ta Okay, so, but are you just putting it on your feed or are you writing it under el someone else's comment? Like a news, someone like newscaster's comment and then you, you know, to try to get their trafficked?Jesse McLaren:I think it, no, just writing a joke about, everyone's talking about one thing, you know, if you just have the perfect thing I'm trying to think of a good example. It's really hard off the top of my head. ButMichael Jamin:So you just post it in your, your feed, you give it a hashtag hope someone would search for it, hopes hope one of your whatever friends will follow you. Retweets it and it goes viral. Yeah. That's your plan, that's your, that's your plan basically. Yeah.Jesse McLaren:I think every social media's a little different, but like, especially Twitter, the whole thing is trying to get retweets. That's how something, and so how very quickly could have, you know,Michael Jamin:But then how, okay, so something would occur to you and then you'd write a couple jokes or just one or what, or as it as it comes, you just tweet it. And now did you have a schedule? Did you have any kind of discipline to this or were you just like, whatever came to you?Jesse McLaren:I don't think I had any discipline. No. I think with Twitter it's like, you know, it's in a, an addiction almost. It's just uhhuh. You'll be out today with your friends, you'll look down at your phone, just see like, oh my God, I can't believe, you know, just something happened. AndMichael Jamin:Okay. So you, you're on there a lot then basically you're,Jesse McLaren:I used to be on there very often. Yeah.Michael Jamin:Really. And so on an average day before you were found, like how many tweets would you send out in a day?Jesse McLaren:I don't know, maybe like five to 10 kind of. Okay. It's hard to tell. Yeah.Michael Jamin:And then some would get, but a lot ofJesse McLaren:It would also, yeah. And a lot of it would also just be like at work. I also worked at Buzzfeed for a while. Okay. So I kind of, one I in real life had knew people who you know, we followed each other on social media, but they had big social media followings. So they saw something, I tweeted a joke that they liked, they might retweet it and that would get me more followers. And then it also just working there really taught me a lot about how social media works and yeah.Michael Jamin:What, what, what did you learn that you could share? Like what's your take big takeaway?Jesse McLaren:Well, I think, I mean specifically with jokes and Twitter, I, you know, one, they all change over time a little bit. But I, I think Twitter consistently, like the, if you want a lot of people to see something you made, it almost doesn't even matter how many followers you have. But if you can get something retweeted a lot, it can kind of just work away brush fire where, you know, you might have, you know, 30 followers, but if someone sees it and retweets it and more people do it, it could, butMichael Jamin:Are youJesse McLaren:Creating a brand 30,000?Michael Jamin:Yeah. Are you staying on brand when you do this? Or are you like, cause it's one thing like, okay, this guy tweets out funny topical jokes every day and he is not tweeting out what he ate for lunch. Like, you know what I'm saying? Do, are you staying on brand? I'm a joke writer and that's it.Jesse McLaren:I don't know. Maybe, I mean, yeah, I don't know.Michael Jamin:You don't know. You're just going with it. Whatever was wor I mean, it worked. I'm just curious how it, how it worked.Jesse McLaren:Yeah, I mean, to me it was just always jokes and you know, I would also, you know, make videos or Photoshops just, you know, pieces of actual media, that kinda thing, Uhhuh. But it was always the goal of, you know, tweeting something and seeing as many people trying to get a lot of engagement with itMichael Jamin:And thenJesse McLaren:Hopefully something funny. Yeah.Michael Jamin:And then someone found it and then had, tell me how Kimmel came about.Jesse McLaren:I think, well over time, like, you know, I, the more I started realizing that this could lead to a writing job more than I, you know, I used to work at the Colbert Report, I submitted packets places, but that never really did anything for me. Right. Always, you know, never WereMichael Jamin:You frustrated? Were you frustrated by that? Were you upset or what, you know, when you weren't getting hired, what, how, what was your take on that?Jesse McLaren:Yeah, it's frustrating. It's also, if I go back and read one of those packets now I like can't do it. You know? So it's like, at the time I thought this is like the best interesting thing I've ever written. How could they not hire me? And thenMichael Jamin:Interesting. And really, cuz you've really grown and that just comes from practice, you think? Or what?Jesse McLaren:Yeah, I think, you know, it's any, anything that gives you actual feedback is really important. And to me, Twitter gave me feedback. I'm really like, you know, not comfortable on stage. I don't have that drive. I don't like doing Right. Performance.Michael Jamin:I asked you that if you're a standup and you're like, no, I don't want to, I don'tJesse McLaren:Wanna do standup. Yeah. It's like, I never no interest. I like the one, the few writers who doesn't wanna be on camera Uhhuh. But Twitter for, that's why for me specifically, it was a really good way to learn h…
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